Another sect maintains, that the earth in all its forms sprang into existence without a cause and of itself, like the beautiful feathers in the tail of the peacock. Goutumů says, but when you use the word without a cause [unimittă], you admit that there is a word to express a cause [nimittu], and therefore the thing itself must exist.

Goută mă asks those who pronounce every thing inconstant, as being subject to birth and death, whether they believe that space existed before creation. If there was space, then, beside divisions of time, there may be what may be called undivided time. To another, who affirms that every thing is undecayable, and who founds his opinion on the acknowledged principles of Goutămă, that atoms and space are eternal, Goutumŭ replies, that there is no arguing against the senses: we daily see production and destruction in every form. Should you plead that every thing must be eternal, because it is derived from uncreated atoms, you would be quite as correct in saying, that a broken vessel must be eternal, because the original former of all things was God; and by this opinion you imitate those who are hostile to the being of a God, for you overturn the whole order of creation and destruction which he has established. The opponent asks what these terms creation and destruction mean-Is creation more than an appearance, and destruction more than a disappearance? This question is answered in the ShăbdăMůnyaloků.

Some actions give rise to immediate consequences, as reading produces immediate. knowledge; but the cultivator receives the fruit of his labours at a future period; and, in the same manner, the fruits of religious or wicked actions are to be reaped in a future state. Against this sentiment a person rises up and maintains, that as actions do not resemble seed, but vanish as soon as committed, it is not possible that they should produce future misery. Goutumă says, from actions arise merit and demerit, and though the actions may not be permanent, the invisible fruits are so. The extinction of evil is called mŭkshй, or liberation; birth is an evil, for with birth all evils are inseparably connected. In the same manner both the shastrŭ and mankind use this form of speech, good actions and evil actions; for though actions in themselves are neither good nor evil, yet merit and demerit arise out of them, and hence they are thus designated.

Here a person maintains, that liberation, in consequence of daily unavoidable duties

which prevent the practice of religious austerities, is unattainable; these are the duties due to a teacher, to a parent, and to the gods: and these occupying the whole of every day, leave no room for abstraction: to leave these duties unperformed, even in order to enter on the life of an ascetic, would be to violate and not to obey the shastră. By occupation in these duties distraction of mind arises, and from this anxiety of mind flows various actions; from these a succession of births, and from these births the same round of passion, actions, and births, in an endless succession. How then should a person attain liberation? Goutumů replies, that God, in the commands he gives, always consults time, place, capacity, and incapacity; and duty at one time would not be duty at another: the duties of a youth (of the student) are not to be practised after that period is passed over.

Goutumů next enquires into the method of acquiring that knowledge of realities by which liberation may be obtained. The pride of separate existence, or selfishness, hav ing entered the body, produces passion, anger, and those evils which give rise to all the errors of life: when a person sees a female, though the body be made up of raw Alesh and bones, yet, being full of pride and selfishness, he is overcome with attachment to this body, as though it were capable of affording the highest happiness, and says, "Ah! Ah! thy eyes roll about like the tail of the khunjun;* thy lips resemble the fruit of the vimbă; thy breasts are like the buds of the lotos; thy face resembles the full moon; the happiness of time is all concentred in thee." Another thus infatuated, says, "Thy form is shining as the melted gold in the crucible; thou resemblest the pleasure-house of cupid; at the sight of thy breasts through envy the elephant-driver pierces the koombhot of the elephant; the moon sinks into its wane through desire to imitate the shadow of thy face. A touch from thee would surely give life to a dead image; and at thy approach a living admirer would be changed by joy into a lifeless stone. Obtaining thee, I can face all the horrors of war; and were I pierced by showers of arrows, one glance of thee would heal all my wounds."

The person possessed of a mind averted from the world, seeing such a female, says, Is this the form with which men are bewitched? This is a basket covered with skin;

* The wagtail.

† Momordica monadelpha.

in the rutting season.

The frontal globes of the elephant which swell

it contains flesh, blood, and fæces. The stupid creature who is captivated by this-is there feeding on carrion, a greater cannibal than he? These persons call a thing made

up

of saliva and bones, and covered with skin, a face, and drink its charms, as a drunkard drinks the inebriating liquor from his cup. They pursue, as most excellent, the way which has been pronounced beyond measure pernicious by all the wise. I cannot conceive how this (a female) can be that bewitching object to these blind infatuated creatures; but I suppose Vidhata (Providence) has made nothing offensive to them. Why should I be pleased or displeased with this body, composed of flesh, bones, and fæces? It is my duty to seek him who is the Lord of this body, and to disregard every thing which gives rise either to pleasure or to pain.

Goutămă

The digŭmbără sect maintains, in opposition to Goutŭmu's opinion that the animal soul is exceedingly rarified and confined to one place, that it is of equal dimensions with the body. Another sect believes, that the body is made up of different members, These sects thus object to Goubut that there is no such thing as the animal soul. tămă, You consider the animal soul as residing in one place, but then how would it be possible for sensation to be realized where the animal soul was not present? and if there be no parts nor members in it, how can it become united to other things? complains of the impossibility of carrying on a discussion with persons so stupid. Every union in this world is of one or other of these kinds, as the supporter and supported, or as one thing holding some connection with another. Fluids naturally mix with other things, but quicksilver does not possess this property; and thus the animal soul is united to the body as quicksilver to other bodies, that is, without being blended with them; or, as the ether, it pervades the whole.

Goutămă next lays down a method for the increase of divine wisdom, which is by weakening our attachment to visible objects, and by repeatedly fixing our meditations on God. A disciple urges, that these objects draw away the senses by a wonderful which they have over them, and that therefore, though he approves of this advice, Goutămă might as well tell him to mount the air as to withdraw his affections from the world, and fix them on God. Goutămů acknowledges that the work is difficult, rendered so by habit and strong desire; but recommends that a person should restrain his

power

senses and watch against occasions of gratification, and thus by degrees learn the method of fixing his mind on God. The Geeta and other works teach us, that liberation is not attained till after many transmigrations spent in learning abstraction.

Here an opponent asks, what proof there is that the merit of a person's efforts to attain abstraction descends from birth to birth till he becomes perfect. What proof is there, he asks, of any birth preceding the present one? We know only the present time.Goutůmů says, God has appointed the bounds of human duty, and has declared that some actions will be followed by sorrow and others by joy; yet, in the practice of what he forbids, men are seen to defy even infinite power! This could not have been, had not an amazing accumulation of crimes and their consequences, increasing through every preceding birth, been brought to operate upon such persons in the present birth, so as to urge them on to such daring and consummate folly.

Divine wisdom is to be perfected by the practice of the eight kinds of yogu, the particulars of which are to be found in the Patunjalŭ and other shastrus. The only difference between the Nyayŭ system and the Patunjulú is, that the disciples of the former maintain that body and spirit are distinct; Patunjulu's opinion is, that spirit is not to be associated with qualities, and this of course excludes the agency of spirit over visible objects.

Further, God is said to be, says Goutumŭ, the Almighty, by which we are to understand, that he is the collected sum of all energy, and not that he is indebted to foreign sources for his energy.

SECTION XXV.

The Voisheshiku philosophy.

To Kŭnadă, one of the sages, are attributed the Voishéshikă soōtrus, which amount to about five hundred and fifty sentences, or aphorisms. These aphorisms relate to seven subjects (půdart'hŭs) under the following distinct heads, viz. 1. things; 2. qualities ; 3. actions; 4. genus; 5. species; 6. the inseparable connection of constituent parts, and 7. non-entity. After a long discussion of the different subjects connected with this arrangement, Kănadă discourses on religion, riches, happiness, and final liberation.

A brief explanation (Vrittee) of these soōtrus has been written, as well as a full and a smaller comment, the former entitled Bhashyň, and the latter the Voishéshikǎ Sōōtropůskarů.* A comment on the Bhashyŭ was written by Vachuspătee-Mishră; but the only work now read in Bengal which has any relation to the Voishéshiků philosophy is that of Vishwu-Nat❜hŭ-Siddhantă, which merely treats of the logical terms of this system and of that of the Nyayй school: in the Nyayŭ colleges of Bengal the students read that part of Vishwu-Nat❜ho's work which relates to the Voishéshikй system, and then study the Nyayu; but the work of the sage is not now studied by any pundit in Bengal. A few of the most learned bramhuns of Calcutta, some years ago, attended the lectures of Bodhanindu-Ghŏnéndro-Swamee, a very learned bramhun, born in Dravirů,† and obtained from him a few general ideas on the doctrines of the Voishéshiků school.-For some account of Kinadu, the founder of this sect, the reader is referred to the 229th page of this volume.

This work is in the library belonging to the Society of Missionaries at Serampore.

+ This person informed a friend, that he remembered the hoisting of the British flag at Fort St. George. The last time he visited Calcutta, Bodhanŭndŭ had travelled as a pilgrim from Raméshwürů to Benares and back again thirteen times, and was then, as he said, going to die at Benares.